


Home Remedy

by frapandfurious, squire



Series: Big Brothers AU [4]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Caring!Ben, Everyone Hates Brendol, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sick!Hux, Sickfic, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 15:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8214578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frapandfurious/pseuds/frapandfurious, https://archiveofourown.org/users/squire/pseuds/squire
Summary: Ben learns Hux is sick, Hux learns to let his boyfriend help him, Rey learns a bit more about Techie, and Techie learns what home feels like.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set two years after the first chapter of [Small Forces](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7586278/chapters/17262223).

So it had come to this.

 

Techie had tried _everything_. He'd tried begging, arguing, physically dragging his brother away from his work, and none of it had worked, not even his most well executed pout to date. Hux had simply given him a weak, mildly amused look and asked how Techie's homework was going. He was all out of ideas.

 

And now he was going to have to do the unthinkable.

 

He was going to have to call Rey.

 

Well, technically who he needed was Ben. Loath as he was to admit it, his brother and Rey's had been going strong for a little over two years now and Hux was happy. Happier than Techie had ever seen his brother.

 

If Hux wouldn't listen to Techie, maybe he would listen to Ben. But Techie didn't have Ben's number, he only had Rey's family's home number which Leia had given him so he and Rey could meet for school projects. He didn’t know, and Rey didn't know yet, but Han, Leia, Hux and Ben all knew it was also so he could call there if he ever needed to get away from his father and Hux was unreachable.

 

With a heavy sigh that made him seem well beyond his twelve years, he picked up the phone and dialed.

 

To his relief, it was Ben who answered.

 

"Hello?"

 

"H-hi Ben. It's me. Techie. Hux's brother."

 

"I know who you are, Techie." There was a smile in Ben's voice. "What's up?"

 

"I need your help."

 

"My help? Did something happen? Where's Hux, aren't you with him?" And now there was concern.

 

"Yeah, I am. We’re at my house and…it's him who needs help, actually."

 

"Is he okay?"

 

"He's sick."

 

"Sick. Okay." Some of the concern eased. “With what?”

 

“Chicken pox.”

 

“How did Hux get _chicken pox?_ ”

 

“…from me. I had it last week. He came over to look after me.”

 

“Where are your parents?” Ben almost hated to ask, he knew the answer couldn’t be good.

 

“They’re away. Father hired someone but she left when I got sick.”

 

“Has Hux been to the doctor?”

 

"No! A-and it’s getting worse and he won't stop working and he looks like he's about to _die_ and he won't listen to me and…"

 

"Alright, hey, just stay calm, okay? He’s going to be fine. Breathe.”

 

Techie took a few slow breaths just like Hux had taught him once.

 

“We’ll be over as soon as we can,” Ben promised.

 

"We?"

 

"Yeah, I've got Rey tonight. Parents are out. Maybe you two can work on homework while I try to get that idiot brother of yours to cooperate, yeah?"

 

"...yeah. Thanks."

 

 _Click_.

 

*

 

Barely thirty minutes later there was a knock at the door. Techie opened it to find a determined Ben with a full grocery bag in one hand and a grumpy Rey with her backpack.

 

Techie stepped aside and let them in. He didn’t miss Rey’s eyes sweep across the sizeable foyer or the disapproving scrunch of her face that followed. His heart sank. It was bad enough that Rey thought he was stuck up from the way he talked and the quality of his school supplies; now she had his house as ammunition as well.

 

 _I don’t care what Rey thinks_ , he tried to convince himself.

 

“This way.”

 

He led Ben and Rey to his father’s study where Hux was at the desk with his back to the door, typing away on his laptop. Even from behind, Ben could tell something was off just from the slouch in his usually flawless posture.

 

“Hux?”

 

The typing halted as Hux froze. He didn’t turn.

 

“Ben? What are you doing here?” His voice was hoarse.

 

“Techie said you’ve got chicken pox.” Ben took a couple steps closer. “Why didn’t you call me?”

 

“I’m _fine_ ,” Hux muttered.

 

“You don’t sound fine.” Ben reached him and put a gentle hand on his back. He frowned when he could feel light tremors.

 

To Ben’s alarm, Hux ducked his head away from him, pretending to read some notes in an open notebook beside him.

 

Ben looked over his shoulder at Rey and Techie in the doorway.

 

“You two go work on your homework. I’ll handle this.”

 

“You will _not_ ,” Hux hissed as Techie led Rey away to the living room. “What if you get sick? Or Rey?”

 

“We won’t. We both had it already, don’t worry.” Ben leaned over him from behind. With one hand he saved Hux’s work and then with the other he gently shut his laptop. Hux sighed but didn’t protest. Ben moved to his side. “Won’t you look at me?”

 

Hux was still and silent for a long moment. Ben waited.

 

“I didn’t want you to see me like this,” Hux mumbled.

 

“Like…what? Sick?” Ben kept his tone light. His fingers played with the hair at the nape of Hux’s neck. “In case you forgot, I’m your _boyfriend_ , Hux. I’m the only one who _gets_ to see you like this. Besides, I’m sure you’re still as handsome as ever.”

 

That finally made Hux face him, if only to shoot him a weak glare. Ben used the opportunity to take in the face full of red sores, the bags under his eyes and flush high on his cheeks. His concern must have shown on his face.

 

“I’m…”

 

“If you say you’re _fine,_ ” Ben interrupted, and Hux stopped.

 

“Please. Let me take care of you. If you won’t do it for me, do it for Techie. You should have heard him on the phone, Hux, he’s really scared for you.”

 

It was a dirty move, using Techie against him, but Ben didn’t have time to mess around. Hux knew exactly what he was doing, but he was also, unfortunately, _right_. With a heavy sigh, the glare slipped from Hux’s face and he closed his eyes against the pounding of his head. He nodded.

 

Strong arms slipped around his shoulders and under his knees and he let himself be carefully lifted, let his head drop against Ben’s shoulder.

 

“Everything hurts,” he muttered. He must have felt as bad as he looked if he was admitting that.

 

“I know, babe. I can’t make it all go away, but I can make you feel better.”

 

Ben carried him to the upstairs bathroom, knelt beside the tub and began running the water. He rummaged through his grocery bag with the other until he found what looked like…

 

“Is that baking soda?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“If this is some sort of home remedy…”

 

“It _works_ ,” Ben replied, a bit defensively. “Worked for me when I had them.”

 

“So it’s your mother’s home remedy.”

 

“Yes. She knows what she’s doing, sometimes. I guess. Just trust me?”

 

“I don’t think I have much of a choice.” But Hux’s little smile was more fond than mocking.

 

Ben mixed a big scoop of the baking soda into the water and shut off the tap. Then he carefully stripped Hux down, taking a minute to analyze the extent of the rash, before helping him into the tub.

 

Hux’s eyes slid shut as the warm water eased some of the ache throughout his body. Ben took a wash cloth, soaked it in the water and used it to gently clean Hux’s face. Then he settled beside the tub, laying one arm on the edge and resting his chin on it as he watched Hux.

 

“You know I have to ask…how did you catch Techie’s chicken pox?”

 

“Is this a trick question?” Hux asked. “From Techie, of course.”

 

“I mean, why were you watching him when he had them? I know the…nanny, or whatever, bailed, but what about his parents?”

 

Hux sighed and lowered his voice in case Techie was nearby enough to hear.

 

“They’re on a month-long tour in Europe. When Techie got sick, there were a couple of rough days. He had a reaction to some topical treatment, I wasn’t sure if I’d need to take him to the ER. I contacted our father and he…” Hux clenched his jaw a moment before continuing. “He said it _wasn’t worth coming home early for_ , and asked me to handle it. ‘ _Handle it_ ’, as if his son was a leaky faucet…”

 

Ben let out a long breath through his nose. Some days he really hoped he never met the elder Hux. He stroked Hux’s hair back out of his face in an attempt to soothe him.

 

“So I’ve been staying here with him, and now I’m not allowed back in the barracks until I’m better,” Hux finished.

 

“How long would this have gone on before you asked for help?”

 

“It’s not as though this is the first time I’ve ever been sick. Eventually I would have taken a break, some medicine, gotten through it myself.”  


“Yes, but, I mean…” Ben gave a frustrated huff. “I mean you don’t have to get through this stuff by yourself, you know?”

 

“I can hardly ask my twelve-year-old brother to…”

 

“I don’t mean Techie,” Ben interrupted, “I meant _me_. You could have called me. That’s what I’m here for. If anything is ever wrong please, _please_ call me.”

 

Hux was silent for so long Ben would have thought he’d fallen asleep if not for the pinch of his brow.

 

“Okay,” came the whispered reply, finally. One slender hand snuck along the edge of the tub, searching. Ben grasped it in his.

 

They sat in comfortable silence for a while. With his free hand, Ben began lightly tracing Hux’s collarbone. Hux turned his head towards him, though his eyes remained closed. Ben would occasionally move his hand up to Hux’s mouth for him to kiss before continuing his caresses; this made Hux smile, so he kept doing it.

 

When the water began to cool, Ben helped Hux out and drained the tub. He gently patted Hux dry, then wrapped him up in the towel and guided him to the first bedroom he found, which looked to be a guest room. He had Hux lie down while he pulled a small bottle out of his bag. Hux managed to weakly half-raise one eyebrow.

 

“It’s a special cream,” Ben explained as he popped open the cap. A lightly floral scent hit them. “Homemade. By, uh…mom. Helps with the itching.”

 

“And has the added bonus of making me smell like potpourri?”

 

“Something like that.” Ben smiled. If Hux was talking back he must be feeling a little better.

 

He poured some of the cream into his open palm and rubbed his hands together. Then he began gently applying it to the damaged skin.

 

Hux sighed and didn’t put up a fight. The smell of the concoction was soothing and Ben’s hands were warm and soft and his presence was comforting and it felt _good_.

 

Ben continued his ministrations until Hux was covered from head to toe and the rich scent filled the room. The whole time, he noticed, Hux kept his drooping gaze fixed on Ben. His expression was soft and Ben took a moment to really appreciate it. Everything in Hux’s life was hard edges, from his family to his military career to the lines of his tailored clothing. It never ceased to amaze Ben how Hux had managed to hold onto some small softness deep inside that life had never been able to quite press out, reserved for the people who mattered most. He was sure Techie had a lot to do with that. He didn’t know it, but Ben had a lot to do with it too.

 

When he was finished, he handed Hux a stack of clothes. Hux reluctantly stood and changed. The briefs and loose pajama pants were Hux’s but the shirt was Ben’s, a band t-shirt worn soft over the years and loose on Hux’s narrow frame.

 

Ben leaned over to look through his bag some more so that he could pretend not to notice Hux draw the fabric of it to his face and inhale Ben’s scent.

 

“When was the last time you ate?”  
  
“Um…”

 

“Dinner it is. Do you want to have it here or downstairs?”  
  
“We aren’t supposed to eat in the bedrooms.”

  
Ben scoffed.

 

“There’s no one here but us.”

 

But Hux seemed anxious about it so Ben gave in and helped him downstairs to the kitchen.

 

*

 

While Ben doted on Hux, Rey and Techie were each studiously filling in a worksheet their science teacher had assigned. They sat at opposite ends of the couch and most certainly did _not_ occasionally peek to see whether the other was further along.

 

“Done!” Rey announced triumphantly, slamming her pencil down and startling Techie so much he nearly dropped his. He looked at his sheet with three remaining blank spaces, and then at her completed one.

 

 _Show off_.

 

That was what he wanted to say.

 

“G-good job,” was what came out, to both of their surprise.

 

“Oh. Um…thanks.” Rey shifted awkwardly, looked around the room, then back at Techie. “When you’re done we can compare answers?”

 

“Yeah. Okay.”

 

“Could I get a drink of water?”

 

“Uh, sure. Kitchen’s just through there.” Techie pointed.

 

Rey hurried off. She found cups – not plastic or paper ones, like at her house, but fine crystal glasses that she was almost afraid to pick up – and filled one. Deciding to give Techie a little time to finish, she leaned against the counter and looked around while she sipped.

 

From the moment she walked in, something had been off about Techie’s house, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Now, looking around the kitchen, she was starting to see.

 

It was so _empty_.

 

There were things, yes. Nice things. Expensive paintings and vases in the living room, fine china in the dining room, here a top-of-the-line knife set that looked as though it had never been touched. But they didn’t get rid of the empty feeling.

 

Feeling dangerously close to a realization, Rey set her glass down and stood in the middle of the room. She looked around slowly and _noticed_.

 

No half-eaten pan of cookies on the stovetop.

 

No tests and drawings stuck to the fridge with magnets.

 

No pencil lines etched into the doorframe to record a growing child’s height.

 

In the living room there had been no photos, no mementos from family trips, no stains on the carpet born of arts and crafts mishaps, none of the awards she knew Techie had won framed and hung with pride on the wall.

 

Techie’s house was full of lots of nice things, but void of love. It was just a house, not a home.

 

An unpleasant feeling wormed its way into her stomach. Before she could think too much about it, footsteps from down the hall jolted her to attention as Ben and Hux returned from upstairs. She quickly made her way back to the living room where Techie was looking over his finished worksheet with a frown of concentration.

 

He looked…different, somehow. As if he was a different person than the one she’d left behind when she went into the kitchen.

 

“Done?” She asked, sitting right next to him and picking up her sheet again.

 

Techie peered up at her through his glasses and Rey smiled. Techie’s mouth twitched a little and then he smiled back and nodded.

 

*

 

Whatever Ben was cooking, it smelled amazing.

 

“Mm…I don’t know what that is but I might actually eat it,” Hux mumbled from the chair where he was slumped, eyes closed, loosely clutching a bottle of water that Ben had insisted he finish.

 

“Pumpkin soup for my pumpkin,” Ben teased. Hux gave a soft groan of either discomfort or annoyance, maybe both.

 

“Here.” Ben set a bowl of orange-brown liquid in front of Hux and sat beside him. Hux didn’t budge. “Come on. Do I have to spoon feed you?”

 

“Don’t you _dare_.”

 

“Here comes the spaceship…”

 

“Isn’t it supposed to be airplane?”

 

“Yeah, well, my parents were unconventional.”

 

“There’s the understatement of the century.”

 

With a heavy sigh, Hux sat up and began taking careful sips of the soup while Ben gently rubbed his back; Hux hummed his appreciation at both.

 

When he was halfway through with it, Ben held out a couple of pills in his palm. Hux hadn’t even noticed him pull out a bottle.

 

“What happened to home remedies?”

 

“That’s mom’s thing. Dad, on the other hand…”

 

Hux obediently downed the pills and finished off the soup. By then he looked about ready to fall asleep there at the table.

 

“Uh-uh,” Ben scolded lightly. “Bed or couch. Which is it.”  
  
“Depends…” Hux’s voice was thick.  
  
“On?”  
  
“Where will you be?”

 

Ben’s heart stuttered. He smoothed a hand over Hux’s hair.

 

“Wherever you are, idiot,” was his soft reply.

 

*

 

They all ended up on the living room couch together. Rey and Techie had dutifully finished their homework and tucked it away; they sat side by side on one cushion. Hux sat wrapped in a blanket and tucked against Ben’s side, cradled in one of his arms with his head on Ben’s shoulder. He absently played with the ends of Ben’s hair to keep from scratching at his sores. Ben held a small photo album in his free hand as Rey slowly flipped through it.

 

“There it is,” Ben said, and Rey stopped.

 

Hux opened his eyes to look down at the photo.

 

In it a gangly, miserable, eight-year-old Ben glared back at them, sitting in an armchair he was still too small for with a thermometer poking out of his mouth, face covered in so many red spots they all blended together into one big blotchy unpleasantness.

 

“Looks like I caught some kind of plague, right?”

 

Hux’s mouth quirked up and he nodded.

 

Rey curiously turned the next page and yelped indignantly at the loose photo that had been slipped in, not from the same year as the rest but a much more recent one. It was of her at age five with chicken pox of her own, cocooned in a blanket and sleeping in Han’s lap.

 

“Why’d you have to put that in there, Ben?” Rey grumbled, frowning at the way Techie leaned in to get a closer look.

 

“Come on, yours weren’t even that bad,” Ben replied.

 

“Not like mine,” Hux added sullenly, his hand making an aborted motion towards his face before he remembered he was supposed to be leaving the rash alone. “I look like something out of a sci-fi film.”

 

“And you say I’m dramatic,” Ben snatched the roaming hand and tucked it against his side. “If you don’t _scratch at them_ , you won’t have any scars, and it’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

 

“Yeah, I mean, look at Techie!” Rey chimed in, determined to both lift Hux’s spirits and distract from the terrible photo. “He had them just the other week and now his skin is nice and smooth like always.”

 

At that, Techie’s _nice, smooth_ skin turned a fetching shade of red. Ben and Hux raised their eyebrows and Rey quickly snatched up the photo album and shut it.

 

“Let’s do something else.”

 

"It's not that late,” Ben mused, “And it’s Friday…how about a movie?"

 

Both kids perked up at that.

 

"You can go to bed if you want," Ben added to Hux. Hux shook his head, even as he yawned.

 

"I'll stay."

 

"You sure?" 

 

"Yes."

 

Ben couldn't find a single DVD and so he retrieved Hux's abandoned laptop and hooked it up to the abnormally large yet seldom used television. Rey helped Techie gather some snacks, and she made a point not to comment on their all natural, gluten free, seemingly _everything_ free labeling. In fact, she didn’t make make any jabs at Techie or his home or family the rest of the night.

 

They settled back in together, Hux leaning against Ben’s side again while Ben soothingly rubbed his back. Rey and Techie sat on the other side, each with a blanket of their own and a big bowl of snack mix between them.

 

The movie began.

 

"What's this?" Hux and Techie asked in unison.

 

"Raiders of the Lost Ark!" Ben answered, appalled. "Don't tell me you've never seen an Indiana Jones movie."

 

"Can't say I have," Hux answered.

 

"Me either," Rey added.

 

"I've failed you as a brother."

 

“He kind of looks like your dad.”

 

All three of them turned at once to Techie, who was squinting thoughtfully, then followed this gaze to the screen. Ben and Rey wore matching horrified expressions.

 

“Oh no.”

 

“Oh _no._ ”

 

*

 

By the time the credits rolled, Techie was the only one still awake, though barely. Hux hadn’t even made it to the bar scene. Rey was leaning against Ben’s other side and Techie had ended up with his head settled timidly against Rey’s shoulder, Ben’s free arm loosely across the back of the couch over them both. As his eyelids slid shut, the last thing Techie remembered was feeling warm, safe and happy.

 

They’d wake a little later, sore and groggy and covered in spilled snack mix. Ben would decide it was too late to drive home and declare an impromptu sleepover. Techie would be elated; it was the first time he’d ever had one at the house. The next day their cleaning lady would clean the mess in the living room and make the beds upstairs, erasing all evidence of the evening before. Hux would get better and life would move on but Techie would always fondly remember that night.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic exists because I have a fluff problem and [squire](http://sinningsquire.tumblr.com/) is my enabler. <3 - frapandfurious
> 
>  
> 
> Visit me on [tumblr](http://obsessions-and-dreams.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
